The Fox News Channel reporter who had been facing jail time if she refused to divulge her sources for a story about the Aurora theater shooting said she hopes she can go back to doing her job, now that the ordeal appears to be behind her.

Jana Winter, who is based in New York, said longtime sources stopped talking to her immediately after she was subpoenaed to testify and investigative stories she was working on dried up. She didn't have much time to report anyway, she said because the legal fight against the subpoena took up so much of each day.

"I hope that all the sources who stopped talking to me will come back now that this subpoena issue is gone," she said. "I hope that I can go back to being a regular reporter who no one recognizes."

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Attorneys for James Holmes wanted to put Winter on the stand to tell who provided her with information about a notebook that Holmes mailed to his psychiatrist.

Winter filed a motion in Colorado to quash the subpoena, on which the judge here had not yet ruled. Had he ordered Winter to testify, she could have faced indefinite jail time if she refused — which she was adamant she would.

Every time Winter traveled to Colorado to attend a court hearing on her subpoena, she said she prepared as if she wasn't going to be returning home soon. She talked to her family. She arranged her financial affairs. She made sure she washed the dishes in the sink.

"It was, 'Here's a list of everything I need to do before I go to jail this time,' " Winter said Wednesday. "It was really, really horrible in every possible way. ... I don't ever want to have a Thanksgiving again where everyone at the table is super thankful that I'm not in jail yet."

When a witness lives out of state, though, courts in both states have to approve a subpoena compelling that witness to testify. This week's ruling undid New York's approval of the subpoena, effectively quashing it — although Winter said she won't be traveling to Colorado while the theater shooting case is still pending.

Arapahoe County District Court Judge Carlos Samour, who is overseeing the theater shooting case, indicated during an earlier order that if New York courts overruled Winter's subpoena, the fight would be over.

"It is possible that the New York Court of Appeals will rule in Winter's favor and will, in turn, render the motion to quash moot," Samour wrote in September.

Winter praised Fox News and its chairman and CEO, Roger Ailes, for their support. And she said this week's ruling — which sets a legal precedent protecting the confidentiality of sources for journalists in New York — made the fight worthwhile.

"People risk their jobs to give information the public wouldn't otherwise be able to know," she said of her sources.

John Ingold: 303-954-1068, jingold@denverpost.com or twitter.com/john_ingold

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